The world's beaches are in trouble!
Shipbreaking takes place in poor countries, where once pretty beaches in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey are turned into ship graveyards. However, old ships contain hazardous substances such as asbestos, lead paint and PCBs, which are released into the environment. The Rainbow Warrior is in India to visit the shipbreaking yards. Evedien from the Netherlands is on board....
November 13, 2003
How to deal with toxic waste?
How can we inform the workers how they should safely handle the toxic materials on the ships that they break? We would like to put warning messages on all the ships that come to beach in Alang so that the workers are aware of what the dangers are. As most of the workers do not speak English, this would have to be in Hindi. Even then many of them can not read.
The breaking of ships poses a real danger for humans and their environment. The workers are not provided with any protective clothing or safety equipment nor are they provided with any training on how to deal with toxic materials. There are regular accidents in the yards which often cause the deaths of many people. In the past three months there have been 4 explosions in which 25 people died.
Posted by at November 13, 2003 03:38 PMAs the deputy editor of Business India, I am keen on doing an article on Alang and shipbreaking in general. If you could provide information on two points:
would you have the annual figures of accidents, namely, how many mishaps, how many injured and how many killed? Is this tally on the rise? Have there been any convictions for negligence or whatever that has led to these accidents?
secondly, what has been the IMO's charter regarding the shipbreaking sector? Its writ extends to all maritime activities and in that there is no equivocality.
Please respond. Sarosh Bana, Mumbai, India.
i think toxic waste is awsome i dont know why u always try to stop what god has made just let things run their course.
sincerely:
Brent Borgen